1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flash controlling device and a flash controlling method for use with a photographing apparatus, such as a digital still camera, with a flash function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Photographing methods for use with photographing apparatuses, such as digital cameras and digital video cameras, in which a target object is detected from a photographed image during photographing and a distance to the target object is calculated based on the size of the target object, to carry out some control based on the result of the calculation, have conventionally been known.
One example of such photographing methods is a method of controlling a light modulation operation according to the distance to the target object calculated based on the size of the target object on the photographing screen. Examples of the light modulation operation include increasing an amount of emitted light and increasing the aperture when the distance is large, and decreasing the amount of emitted light and decreasing the aperture when the distance is small (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-075717).
Another example is a method of preventing “white out” of the target object by decreasing the amount of flash light when the ratio of the size of the detected target object on the photographing screen is higher than or equal to a predetermined value, determining that a close-up image of the target object is being photographed (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-107567).
However, in the above-described photographing methods, although the amount of emitted light is controlled, flashing is carried out when the target object has been detected. In these methods, even if a target object has been detected, the flash light may not reach the target object if the distance to the detected target object is large.